


Draw Something

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Artist Gabriel, Drawing, Fluff, M/M, Matchmaking, Texting, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 21:56:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6537730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel Novak meets Mary Winchester through the phone game Draw Something, and before long, the two of them start texting. They're friends, and then things start to change when Mary mentions that she has a son Gabriel's age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Draw Something

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trustyourdragons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trustyourdragons/gifts).



> Second birthday fic out of three for Abbshine. <3 Kind of sort of based on true events, too!! Mostly I just love Mary Winchester and I want to write more fics with her and even this wasn't enough for me and I'm definitely going to write a fic from her POV someday when I figure it out.
> 
> For now have some random slightly cracky fluff.

Gabriel is a serious artist. Very serious, he swears. He paints and he uses the oil chalks and canvas sketchbooks and all the other serious drawing materials. He even had his work featured in a gallery once. It may have been an exhibition at the elementary school his brother worked at, but still, a gallery. This makes him a very serious artist.

A very serious artist who is currently obsessed with the game Draw Something.

He plays the game with everyone he's friends with, and when they get bored of it or can't guess his amazing masterpieces, he starts looking further afield. He needs more partners. He'll play with anyone, whether it's an eight year old kid with their first phone who just writes the word on the screen, or an eighty year old whose hands are shaking too bad to draw anything at all. He just needs more of this game in his life. It's perfect for him, it's the exact right mixture of social interaction, creativity and general weirdness, and he can't get away from it. He's pretty sure that he used to draw and paint other things too, but now he just wants to play on the app. All the damn time.

He doesn't expect to make a friend through it.

\--

He met them over a matchup system, and after three of their drawings in a row made him laugh out loud because of their quirky takes on them, he decided he had to talk to them for real. Unlike Gabriel, who was (as previously mentioned) a very serious artist and spent a long time getting the perfect shading on the tiny cartoon fox he was creating, this person didn't seem like they did art usually. They were just in the game for fun, but despite the lack of technical skill, Gabriel was in awe of their unique takes on all the different drawing prompts, and was able to correctly guess the drawings every time no matter how bizarre they seemed at first.

He took the step. In his next drawing, he scrawled "what's your phone #?" in the top corner.

Only part of him expected a response. That was probably weird. This was a drawing game, not a dating app or whatever, people weren't supposed to exchange phone numbers.

But the person replied, so (after his next very detailed drawing of a banana, complete with brown spots and the peel falling away) he sent a text.

_[Sent 14:10] Hi! This is Gabriel! Well, Gabriel's my name anyway, you didn't know that yet, but I'm called Gabriel. And I'm the guy you've been playing Draw Something with._

_[Sent 14:11] Shit, I probably should have edited that text before I sent it._

_[Sent 14:11] I'm the worst, I swear? This is how I talk too. I just say things without thinking and then I end up sounding really stupid._

_[Sent 14:12] And I always forget that I can read over things I type before I send them._

_[Sent 14:12] I'll shut up now. You probably think I'm crazy._

Gabriel rolled his eyes at himself and put his phone down. He didn't have a lot of friends, and now he'd just ruined his chance at finally making one by doing the same thing he always did and rambling.

He definitely didn't expect to hear his phone bleep, not two minutes later, with a response.

_[Received 14:14] Hi Gabriel! My name is Mary, and I don't think you're crazy at all. Maybe a tiny bit, but it reassures me that you're not a stalker. My sons have warned me about stalkers on the Internet, but I don't think any of them would talk like you are!_

Sons? Gabriel definitely hadn't expected that. And sons that were old enough to know about Internet stalkers too. Whoever he was talking to here was older than he'd first expected.

_[Sent 14:17] No, I'm not a stalker, just a guy with too much time on his hands and a really bad case of foot in mouth disease. You'll get used to it. Maybe. You have sons?_

_[Received 14:20] Yes, two! Sam's seventeen and Dean is twenty-one. They're wonderful boys! I'm sorry if you were expecting to be talking to a young person!_

Gabriel laughed, and the truth was, he didn't mind at all. He actually kind of loved the way Mary used exclamation marks at the end of every sentence even when she wasn't particularly excited at all, and her complete confusion over all things text speak was, in a word, adorable. Gabriel had never really known his own mother when he was growing up, and he'd never been close to his dad either, so as the two of them talked more and more, Gabriel started to find something in Mary that he'd never had in anyone before. And in a weird way he felt his heart swell in his chest whenever Mary acted protective of him or did anything stereotypically parent-like.

For example, one night just a couple of weeks after they'd started talking, he took a night away from drawing for the first time.

_[Sent 7:32] I won't be on the game much tonight - going to a party with my friend Bal. He says I spend too much time drawing and need to have some fun. I told him drawing is fun, but you think he listens to me? Fuck no.  
_

_[Received 7:34] Mind your language, Gabriel! ;-) Have a fun night, stay safe and don't drink too much!_

Gabriel blushed for some reason he couldn't figure out. He couldn't remember being told to 'mind his language' since the fifth grade when he'd accidentally yelled "Shit!" after dropping a can of paint over himself and messed up his nicest pair of jeans. 

And then, another time, he had to study for a math exam at school. Mary refused to send him texts that night and yelled at him every time he tried to send something to her - but then he woke up in the morning to a flood of messages.

_[Received 6:18] Good luck this morning, Gabriel! I know you know all the sines and cosines! You'll do really well!_

_[Received 6:19] (Can you tell I haven't taken a math class since I was in high school? You're so much smarter than I am!)_

_[Received 6:20] Let me know how the exam goes!_

_[Received 6:21] Make sure to eat breakfast this morning and have a drink! You'll need it to keep your strength up!_

Gabriel shook his head, because he hadn't eaten breakfast since maybe the seventh grade, but also because he knew Mary was much smarter than she gave herself credit for. Despite her odd punctuation choices, she basically lost Gabriel half the time when she was talking about medicine or figure skating, her two careers (and just the fact that she was so knowledgeable about two such different things said a lot.) Rolling his eyes to himself, he grabbed a block of cheese on the way out the door, munching on it as he walked to school.

But the final bonding moment - for want of a better word, because that sounded way too cheesy for Gabriel's liking - came when Gabriel had a meeting with his guidance counselor at school, during which she yelled at him for skipping the school's 'Preparing for College' information session the previous night. 

_[Received 21:19] How was your day?_

_[Sent 21:21] Kinda crap, I had a meeting with my guidance counselor._

_[Received 21:22] What happened?_

_[Sent 21:31] See, I'm going off to college in a few months. And I'm really scared. And it's kind of stupid for me to be scared, you know? Because none of my family have ever really been around so I've pretty much raised myself anyway and I do the cooking and the cleaning and I pretty much make my own way in the world so it's like, how is college gonna be any different? It's not. But I'm still scared and the guidance counselor keeps lecturing me about how much of a transition it is and putting all this pressure on and I feel really dumb and I can't talk to any of my friends about it and I didn't know if you'd be able to give me some mom advice or something. Sorry, not that I'm trying to put this on you just because you're a mom, in fact you probably want a break from all this mom stuff. I shouldn't say any of this. I should just delete this text, shouldn't I? Yeah I'm gonna dele_

_[Sent 21:31] Shit._

_[Sent 21:31] I didn't mean to send that._

Gabriel scowled, because who the fuck had decided it was a good idea to put the 'send' button that close to the 'backspace' button? He knew it was probably his fault for being a clumsy idiot, but still. He wanted to take the message back right away before Mary had a chance to see it. Could he do that? Short of sending a sniper to her house to wrench the phone from her hand, was that even possible?

_[Received 21:41] It's normal to be scared about college. My son is exactly the same way. It's still a change and you'll still be with completely different people, in a school that makes you take more responsibilities for yourself than before. Sorry, I'm not trying to scare you further! But I know you're a very brave young man and you'll do wonderfully at college, and if you're going to be studying art, all your professors are guaranteed to be impressed with your work, because you have so much natural talent! I believe in you, and if you're good then I'll send you care packages!_

Gabriel shook his head, but he couldn't hide the smile on his face, or the relief that washed over him reading the message. He kind of wished she could be there in person to look him in the eye and fix him with a trademark Mom Glare as she said these things, but this was way, way better than nothing.

_[Sent 21:47] Yeah, I'm gonna study art. And don't send me care packages!! Trust me, you'd be horrified if you saw how much sugar I already eat, you really don't need to give me any more._

_Thanks. Really, I mean it. Thanks for this._

_[Received 21:52] Any time, Gabriel! Can't really help the mom instinct from kicking in! My wise words would be more effective if I was saying them to your face, but this will have to do!_

Gabriel smiled. That had definitely been a synergy moment, right there.

He didn't reply, but he went to bed a while later (earlier than he had in months) and although earlier he'd expected to be cold and shaking still, trying his best to sleep just so he could block out his fears but failing, instead, now, he slept with a smile on his face.

That day seemed to be a turning point for the two of them, the day that took their relationship from 'casual' to 'this person is serious and important in my life and I would do things to make them happy, even eat celery.' Mary was Gabriel's friend, and he started to bring her up in everyday conversation, take pictures of things he saw that made him think of her, and get more comfortable with the texts he sent, not overanalyzing every case of speaking without thinking (and there were many, many cases.)

And maybe Gabriel should have found it strange that he had a friend with a son his age. His other friends certainly raised an eyebrow at it. But it wasn't weird to Gabriel at all. Sometimes he forgot how old Mary was, and sometimes he was hyper-aware of it, like when he asked her for advice, or when she reminisced on her own high school days, which were so different to Gabriel's own. But it wasn't a bad thing. They just had different life experiences, that was all.

So the two of them settled down. They texted a little less, now that the initial flurry was over, and their game died down to one or two drawings a day. But it was comfortable. It was nice.

And then, at the end of May--

_[Received 22:00] My son Sam graduated high school today!! I'm so proud of him!! Look at him in his graduation robe!! Isn't he tall??!!_

Gabriel nearly dropped his phone into his lap, staring at the picture of Mary's son. The whole time they'd been talking, she'd never sent him a picture before. Gabriel occasionally sent pictures of the artwork he was working on, because Mary was interested in art despite being frankly terrible at it herself, but this... He hadn't been expecting this, that was for sure.

Not the picture itself - more the fact that the boy in the photo was quite possibly the best looking guy Gabriel had ever seen.

He knew it was completely inappropriate to be staring at Mary's son the way he was, practically drooling onto his phone in fact. And she would probably be horrified if she knew what he was doing right now. But he couldn't really help it. That hair...  the tanned face... and those arms poking out from the sleeves of the graduation robe that Gabriel was ninety-nine per cent sure hid a really hot body complete with amazing abs. 

_[Sent 22:02] Holy shit your son is hot._

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

_[Sent 22:05] No I didn't mean that! Please don't take that the wrong way! I'm sorry you probably don't want to ever talk to me again wow I know I said I had a foot in mouth problem but this has got to be one of my worst ever I'm so fucking sorry and I'm even more sorry for the language and for my general existence and just yeah I'll shut up now_

Gabriel put his head in his hands. He didn't know what would be worse, Mary ignoring him for the rest of forever, or Mary texting him back and yelling at him.

But when his phone buzzed with a reply-

_[Received 22:08] It's not a problem! He is a very handsome boy, I agree!_

_Actually, I think you'd be just his type. ;-)_

Gabriel snorted. What the hell did that mean?

_[Sent 22:10] Oh really? ;-)_

Gabriel almost threw his phone across the room after sending that. There were two problems with that message. First and most importantly, he'd started sending those dumb emoticons with the noses that nobody under forty-five should ever be allowed to use. Secondly, he was flirting with a boy who was way out of his league - through the boy's _mother_.

Why the fuck was this happening to him?

_[Received 22:15] Yes really. :-) He does tend to go for the artistic types. And the funny ones! I've told him about you, and he laughs at some of the things you say!_

Gabriel blushed. A hot guy was laughing at things he said. That happened to him pretty much never, and he was glad he was alone in the room with nobody there to see his reaction.

_[Received 22:19] Anyway, I'm going to go to bed now! Sorry it's early, but I'm a boring old lady and I've had two glasses of wine tonight! You have a good night, take care of yourself!_

Gabriel shook his head, and tried to focus on some of his actual drawing in his sketchbook, but he couldn't stop the picture of Mary's son from floating back into his brain. Before he knew it, he'd pulled out his charcoal pencils and started sketching the photo, freehand, without even needing to look at it as a reference.

He fell asleep on his bedroom floor, the drawing almost finished. It was far earlier in the morning than he usually got up, but there was already a text waiting for him.

_[Received 4:43] Gabriel, I hope you don't think this question is "creepy"! I was wondering where you live! You don't have to give me your address, but maybe tell me the nearest big city!_

Gabriel frowned at the text message, and he frowned even more when he saw the timestamp. Why had Mary been wondering where he lived at four forty-three in the morning? Why had she even been up at four forty-three in the morning?

He decided to go with it.

_[Sent 10:08] I live in Lawrence. Kansas. Probably not far from you, cause we got matched up on the game cause we live close to each other, right??_

The instructions Mary sent back were even more puzzling. 

_[Received 10:10] Be at the Crooked Dragon restaurant this Saturday at seven o'clock in the evening!! You won't be disappointed!!_

Gabriel stared at the text message for what felt like five hours or so, but considering how short his attention span was, it had probably been more like two minutes. There was no way he was seriously considering following instructions from a disembodied woman in his phone.

_[Sent 10:14] ...why?_

_[Received 10:15] You'll see! ;-) ;-)_

Two winking emoticons. One was cryptic, two was just cruel.

Fuck. Now he had to go. He had to see what this was about.

Gabriel showed up at the restaurant at five minutes to seven wearing his best pink dress shirt over his only pair of jeans that didn't have holes in it. For reasons he couldn't place, he was holding a single yellow rose. He didn't know if he was about to have dinner with a woman who he basically considered his adoptive mother despite never having really spoken to her, but who had been putting up with way too much of his shit for months, so he thought he should have something to give her, just in case.

He approached the waiting desk. "Hi, uh, I'm Gabriel. I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. I don't know if..."

"Gabriel! Yes! Your friend has been expecting you, I'll show you to his table!"

Wait. _His_ table?

Gabriel's heart stopped dead in his chest when his eyes fell on the boy from the photo, sitting at a booth in the corner of the room, watching Gabriel approach and grinning. Gabriel expected the grin to fade as he got closer and closer, because Gabriel didn't consider himself to be anywhere near this guy's level of attractiveness, and if Sam had been lured into coming here by his mother, he'd probably at least expected Gabriel to be hot.

But, if anything, the grin only got wider.

"Um, hi," Gabriel blushed and held out the flower to Sam. Well, shit. That probably wasn't one of his best starts.

"Hi? That's all I get? You've pretty much been sending essays to my mother for months, and I only get a 'hi'?"

"Well, you're hot and I'm nervous around you..." Gabriel mumbled, looking down at the floor.

Sam took the flower. "You're just as adorable as she said you were."

Gabriel's cheeks flamed red. This boy wasn't allowed to compliment him, that wasn't how it worked. And he couldn't think of a response, so he just blurted, "I can't believe you let your mother set you up on a blind date."

There was a pause, and then the two of them burst out laughing.

"Yeah, well, I trust her judgement. And from what I'm seeing so far, I made the right decision," Sam said, still laughing. Fuck, his face was even more beautiful when he laughed.

"Well, now you have me in a corner. I can't insult myself without insulting your mom's taste. And since my main form of humor is self deprecation, this is a dangerous situation."

Gabriel had been dead serious about this, but Sam laughed aloud all the same. "You'll be fine. I bet you know some great jokes."

"Hell yes. You ever hear the one about the two British chavs?"

Gabriel did not get a chance to tell his hilarious joke, because at that moment, the waiter came by and took their drink orders. Sam asked for a lemonade, Gabriel got a cherry Coke, and Sam raised an eyebrow at him for his taste in drinks.

"What? It's sweet and caffeinated at the same time, what's not to like?"

"I'd say sweet and bubbly, because that way it's just like you," Sam replied, and Gabriel blushed.

They fell into silence, and Gabriel twisted a lock of hair around his finger, biting his lip nervously. "So, uh, what now?" 

Sam pushed a napkin across the table and grinned. "Draw something for me."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't draw, but I do scream about Sabriel at **casandsip.tumblr.com**


End file.
